


Any more different

by Woodentrain



Series: 500 word prompts [3]
Category: Call Me By Your Name (2017), Call Me By Your Name - All Media Types, Call Me by Your Name - André Aciman
Genre: CMBYN Drabble Challenge, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, M/M, POV Multiple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28694067
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woodentrain/pseuds/Woodentrain
Summary: This challenge prompt wasWhen you meet someone so different from yourself, in a good way, you don't even have to kiss to have fireworks go off. It's like fireworks in your heart all the time.(Lisa Schroeder)
Relationships: Oliver/Elio Perlman
Series: 500 word prompts [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2175660
Comments: 24
Kudos: 45
Collections: CMBYN Drabble Challenge





	Any more different

**Author's Note:**

> Hmm this was a tough one! But I'm gonna stop overworking it and get something posted!

He could not be any more different from me.

Oliver looks like the lovechild of a surfer dude and a Greek god. Tall, lean and blond. Tanned, just the right amount. Utterly sure of himself, always relaxed, fazed by nothing.

And me? I am skinny to the point of unattractiveness. My almost-six-foot height is gawky instead of masculine. My hair is dark and wild. 

I could climb him like a tree, and he could snap me like a twig.

_ Be nice to him, Elio. He could use a friend.  _ I don't know anything about his background and my father doesn't see fit to tell me. 

I think that Oliver needs no-one. Why would he need a friend- especially someone like me- when he can surely just go out there and have the company of anyone he chooses?

*

He could not be any more different from me. 

Elio takes ownership of his insecurities and doesn’t try to hide them. He makes no effort to look like everything’s fine. He clearly cares what people think, but he’s comfortable in his own discomfort, confident about his unease.

He makes little effort to impress or fit in.

I, on the other hand, walk through life with the carefully cultivated appearance of effortlessness. 

_ Be patient with him, Oliver. He's not as prickly as he seems. _ His father doesn't elaborate beyond this and I don't ask. It’s not my business.

My own father could not be more different from his. My father threw me out, almost five years ago now. Words were said.  _ No son of mine.  _ Also the F word, and i don’t mean  _ fuck.  _ The other one, the one people use about people like me. (Although, for the record,  _ fuck _ was also used, along with a variety of other expletives. Not that it matters.)

So I’m on my own. My motivation for applying for this internship was academic, but I can't deny that the six week break from living expenses is much appreciated.

I think that Elio’s attitude towards me seems unlikely to thaw. It's not just that he's prickly, it feels personal.

*

Later.

There’s a kiss, in the grass, in the sun. Afterwards my head is filled with a peculiar echoing silence, the awestruck  _ is-it-over _ pause that always follows fireworks. The fireworks he’s been setting off in me for weeks, without me even noticing.

By now I’ve come to realise- he is not so different to me after all. 

*

We take one another to bed. The bed that was once his bed and not mine, but that’s now my bed and not his, and will soon once more be only his. But for now it’s ours, all ours. 

The night is beautiful, even more so because of its shy awkwardness. Our differences are irrelevant- we are Elio, Oliver, Oliver, Elio.

*

He leaves. 

I am no longer only myself, but also him.

I keep pieces of him, and give him pieces of myself to keep. We are both changed. Different, yet still the same.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on tumblr- [natures-cunning-ways](https://natures-cunning-ways.tumblr.com/).  
> 


End file.
